This application seeks Core support from the Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for the Wisconsin Mental Retardation Research Center (MRRC). The Wisconsin MRRC, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the focal point for the University of Wisconsin System in the development of new knowledge about mental retardation and related developmental disabilities. The application seeks support for an administrative core and six research support cores. The six research cores are the Computing, Data Management, and Statistics Core, the Communication/Graphics Core, the Animal Care and Breeding Core, the Instrumentation Core, the Cell Biology Core, and the Assessment Core. These cores provide essential, high-quality, and sometimes unique services at costs that are below the rates for those services if purchased from outside the MRRC. This grant will provide Core support for 37 research projects to be conducted by 35 investigators in four research groups pursuing biomedical and behavioral research. The four research groups are the Molecular and Genetic Sciences Unit (MGSU), the Sensory and Motor Processes Unit (SMPU), the Communication Processes Unit (CPU), and the Social and Affective Processes Unit (SPU). This research is designed to provide new information about the causes, nature, and possible efficacious intervention in disorders that cause mental retardation and other forms of developmental disabilities. Of the 37 projects, 35 are either supported through extramural funding by current grants from the NIH, the NSF, or the NIMH or have a pending proposal at one of these agencies; one is supported by the Muscular Dystrophy Association; and the remaining project is being proposed as New Program Development.